We still need this debate

10:24 AM,
Jun. 12, 2013

Eugene Robinson

Written by

Eugene Robinson

The important thing right now isn't whether Edward Snowden should be labeled hero or villain. First, let's have the debate he sparked over surveillance and privacy. Then we can decide how history should remember him.

Snowden is the 29-year-old intelligence analyst and computer geek who has been leaking some of the National Security Agency's most precious secrets to journalists from The Washington Post and the Guardian. He is now on the lam, having checked out of the Hong Kong hotel where he was holed up for several weeks as he orchestrated a worldwide media splash that shows no sign of ending.